Food tray for the blind



Sept 15, 1953 v, w, ENSLEIN 2,651,926

FOOD TRAY FOR THE BLIND Filed July 9, 1952 INVENTOR. #waawr /1( five;5w,

AT TORNE'YS,

Patented Sept. 15,1953

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FOOD TRAY FOR THE BLIND Vincent W. Enslein,Cincinnati, Ohio Application July 9, 1952, Serial No. 297,856

4 Claims. 1

This invention relates to a food tray for the blind, and moreparticularly to a tray which may be of standardized dimensions, andwhich will preferably have means to fix the position of the various fooddishes, beverages and condiments, and which is provided with guide meanswhereby the blind user may unerringly reach for any of the dishes onsaid tray without the danger of spillin any of the items, and withoutthe danger of accidentally putting his hand into one of the dishes.

Heretofore it has been'known that a blind person can eat neatly andwithout dimculty if the food dishes are invariably placed before him inthe same relative position. 'However, even when this is done the userwill often inadvertently spill a glass of water or put his hand into avegetable dish or the like because the exact position may not be thesame as that to which he is accustomed, and because there is no way forhim to guide his hand to the correct position. For these reasons blindpeople must either be fed or attended by someone to point out the dishesto him or food will be spilled.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a tray by means ofwhich a blind person can eat a meal without assistance of any kind, andwith absolute safety against spillage or the like. It is a furtherobject of the invention to provide such a tray which will be simple inmanufacture and therefore inexpensive, and which can be standardized andadopted throughout the country and throughout the world so that a blindperson no matter where he eats may use such a tray and eat his meal withconfidence and without danger of spillage.

These and other objects of the invention which will be pointed out ingreater detail hereinafter, or which will be apparent to one skilled inthe art upon reading these specifications, I accomplish by that certainconstruction and arrangement of parts of which I shall now describeexemplary embodiments.

Reference is made to the drawings forming a part hereof, and in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of an exemplary tray according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a cross sectional view thereof taken on the line 22 ofFigure 1;

Figure -3 is a fragmentary perspective view taken more or less on theline 3-3 of Figure 1;

Figures 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9 are views similar to Figure 3 showing modifiedstructures;

Figure 7 is a fragmentary perspective view showing the manner in whichthe invention is used.

Briefly in the practice of the invention I provide a tray which may beof molded plastic or light gauge aluminum or the like, which is providedwith means to fix the position of the various food items includingbeverages, condiments and the like. Associated with these various fixingmeans I provide guide means commencing at one of the edges of the trayand leading toward the respective fixing means so that the user mayguide his hand up to the food dish he wishes to consume.

Referring now to the drawings, a tray is generally indicated at H a maindish is shown at H, a vegetable dish at l2, a dessert dish at 13, a teaor coffee cup at M, a water glass position ati5, and condiment positionsas for salt and pepper at it and IT. A position for a butter plate isindicated at [8. The main dish II is maintained in place by a positionfixing element in the form of a ridge I la, the vegetable dish 12 ispositioned by means of a similar element [2a, the coffee cup I4 ispositioned by a similar element Ma.

The uide means are tactile in nature so that the user may feel his wayto the dish position by means of his hand, as best seen for example, inFigure '7. The guide elements may take any one of a number of forms.Thus, in Figure 3 I have indicated a groove 29; in Fig. 4 a groove 2|having a raised edge or ridge 22; in Fig. 5 I have indicated a simpleridge 23; in Fig. 6 a groove 24; in Fig. 8 a groove 25; and in Fig. 9 aseries of bumps 26. In the embodiment of Fig. 1 grooves have been usedas indicated at 2i].

It will be clear that the guide elements may stop short of the meanswhich fix the position of the dish so that the end of the guide meanswill indicate to the user that his hand is in the proper position. Thus,in Fig. 6 the groove 24 simply terminates, as at Ma, and when the usersfinger reaches the wall 2411 he knows that his hand is in the correctposition to grasp the dish held in the means [2.

Similarly, in Fig. 9 the series of bumps 26 will terminate short of therespective dish positioning means so that the user will know that whenhe comes to the end of the series of bumps his hand is in the properposition. The same may be true of a guiding element in the form of aridge.

I prefer, however, to provide warning means in association with each ofthe guide elements to clearly indicate to the user that his hand is inthe correct position. The warning means may also take a variety offorms. In Figs. 1 and 3 the warning means is constituted by a hump 30.

Thus, the user will slide a little finger of the appropriate hand alongthe groove 20 until it abuts the bump 30, at which point his hand willbe in the proper position to grasp the particular dish in question.

In the embodiment of Figure 4 I have shown a hump 3| associated with theslot 2| having the raised edge 22. In Figure 6, as pointed out above,the end wall 24a. of the groove 24 serves as a warning means. In Fig. 5,I have shown an enlargment 32 of the ridge in the form of an enlargedhump for the same purpose. In the example of Fig. 8, I have shown anenlargement in the groove at 33 in the form of a hole which can readilybe felt by the blind user.

It will be understood that the tray Ill instead of having members suchas those indicated at Ila, [2a, Ma, l5, l8, l6 and I1, may simply bemolded to provide the dishes in the tray itself. It would only benecessary to provide means to fix the position of the coffee or tea cupand the water glass. All other dishes could be formed as depressions inthe tray itself. The members I6 and I! would of course have to beprovided for salt and pepper shakers. It will therefore be understoodthat the term means to fix the position of the various food dishes,including beverages and condimen is intended to cover a situation wherethe means to fix the position is constituted by a depression forming thedish itself.

It will be clear that numerous modifications may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention, and I therefore do notintend to limit myself except as set forth in the claims which follow.

Having now fully described my invention what I claim as new and desireto secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A meal holding plaque for the blind, having a plurality of dishreceiving holding means fixed in relation to said plaque in suitablespaced relation to each other, and tracks originating at peripheraledges of said plaque and extending across the upper surface of saidplaque toward, but not touching, respective ones of said dish receivingholding means.

2. A structure according to claim 1 wherein said tracks comprise groovesdepressed below the upper surface of the plaque.

3. A structure according to claim 1 wherein each of said tracksterminates in a warning abutment at its inner end.

4. A structure according to claim 3 wherein said tracks comprise groovesdepressed below the upper surface of a plaque and said warning abutmentsare enlarged depressions in the upper surface of said plaque.

VINCENT W. ENSLEIN.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 529,526 Gaskill Nov. 20, 1894 947,373 Coleman, Sr. Jan. 25,1910 1,511,265 Chilson Oct. 14, 1924 1,858,728 Creighton May 17, 19322,240,842 Gehring et al. May 6, 1941 2,352,684 Braddock July 4, 1944.

